Spotting the signs that a student is misusing AI and educating them on its impacts is critical to preventing them from doing it again. It may also be a teacher’s responsibility to verify whether coursework is authentic and a pupil’s own original work before it is submitted.
Here are the 7 key signs a pupil has used AI to generate written content, and how to verify whether the work was written by AI or not.
7 signs that written content is AI-generated
1. Inconsistent content
While AI-generated content is improving in quality, it tends to include sudden shifts in tone, style, and topic, and it may also write with odd or overly complicated sentence structures. This is because it’s writing based on vastly different inputs and mashing them together. Humans, on the other hand, usually write in a structured way that flows naturally.
2. Nonsensical passages
AI is trained on patterns and probability, so it makes one up when it doesn’t know the answer. Known as hallucinations, they can range from odd sentences that don’t make sense to incorrect statements.
3. A humanless tone of voice
AI-generated content is usually formulaic and lacks the uniqueness and emotion humans naturally write with. It also fails to understand nuance and the purpose/context of a piece of writing, so it might not address the assignment correctly.
4. Outdated information
Some AI models don’t have access to the internet, so they won’t have access to the most up-to-date information, which can result in content about a current or recent event being inaccurate or missing information.
5. The repetition of specific words, phrases, and sentence structures
Generative AI tools are infamous for using specific terms and phrases in their training data. The most popular offenders include:
- Delve
- Underscore
- Pivotal
- Realm
- Harness
- Illuminate
- Enhance
- Crucial
- Tapestry
- Intricate
- Interplay
- Resonate
- Elevate
Another common indicator is negative parallelisms, e.g.: “It’s not just a…, it’s a…”.
6. Predictable formatting
AI-generated content has several tell-tale signs in the way it’s structured. This can include an overuse of bullet points, frequent em dashes, section summaries, section headings being in title case, and the bolding of keywords. It can sometimes even include instructions for the intended author that they forgot to remove.
7. Poor analysis
AI is good at collating facts but isn’t so good at analysing them. While AI is improving, outputs tend to appear stiff and robot-like.
How to verify if content is AI-generated
If you suspect an assignment is AI-generated, many ways exist to confirm this.
1. Compare the assignment to previous work
If the style, vocabulary, structure, or quality of writing or work is significantly different or markedly better than previous work, it’s a strong indicator that AI has been used. AI-generated content also tends to lack mistakes that any human would make, no matter how strong a writer they are.
2. If you do have suspicions, quiz the student on the topic
If they’ve written an in-depth analysis of a topic themselves, they should be able to discuss it with you and carry over arguments they shared in the assignment. You could also ask them to explain their points and how they came to them.
3. Look at the version history of documents
Most word processing programmes allow you to review previous versions of a document as it was written. If a student has written an assignment themselves, it will have many versions that show it being steadily written over time, and then likely reviewing it and making edits. If AI-generated, the content would probably have been copied and pasted directly into the document, which you can see in the version history.
Will AI change exams and coursework in the future?
Download our latest guide to learn more about how AI could transform how pupils prep for and complete exams and coursework, and how examiners mark their work.
Note: while plenty of AI detectors available can check for AI for you, they can be unreliable and produce false negatives and positives, so it’s recommended that you don’t solely rely on these tools.
